Sepsis student nurse wants to save lives

Katie Dutton is training 200 students and nurses to spot the signs of sepsis

A nursing student who says she almost died when doctors failed to spot the signs of sepsis wants to use her experience to help to save lives.

Katie Dutton was given a 15% chance of survival two years ago after contracting sepsis in hospital while being treated for a kidney infection.

She said surviving her ordeal inspired her to be a nurse and is now training at Leicester's De Montfort University.

The 27-year-old is helping to teach nurses and students how to spot sepsis.

Katie says she got sepsis after a line was left in too long

"It was a horrific experience and being a student nurse I understand how understaffed the hospitals are currently and how mistakes can be made," said the first-year student, who is from Hertfordshire but currently lives in Leicester.

"I hope that we can change things and help make an example for future nurses."

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She is leading an awareness day to train 200 nurses and students at her university on how to spot and prevent sepsis.

Ms Dutton has also released photos of herself in her hospital bed to highlight the condition.

Katie Dutton's arm swelled up in hospital

Ms Dutton said she contracted MRSA in hospital after a line was left in too long, which led to sepsis and the signs were not spotted quickly enough by medical staff.

She spent a week in intensive care but eventually recovered.

"It's a really big problem in the NHS at the moment and I just hope that student nurses are fresh faces in the NHS.

"They go into practice as a completely clean slate and if they know how to treat sepsis... then hopefully we can avoid situations like mine happening in the future."

Sepsis

• It is the reaction to an infection in which the body attacks its own organs and tissues

• If not spotted and treated quickly, it can rapidly lead to organ failure and death

• There are 44,000 deaths from sepsis in the UK every year, 14,000 of those are preventable

• Kills more people than bowel, breast and prostate cancer and road accidents combined

*Source: UK Sepsis Trust.